Why it works: Rice and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,137 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Rice Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Combine milk and salt in a saucepan.
Place the saucepan in a larger pan with boiling water.
Mix corn starch with a little cold milk or water.
Stir the corn starch mixture into the hot milk.
Stir until the mixture boils for 3 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in the butter.
Beat egg yolks with sugar.
Stir the beaten yolks into the mixture.
Add rice, cinnamon, and brandy.
Bake
Beat egg whites with 1 tablespoon sugar until stiff.
Fold the stiff egg whites into the mixture.
Pour the mixture into a pudding pan.
Place the pudding pan in a larger pan with hot water.
Bake for 30 minutes.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Rice + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,137 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Rice + corntop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together933 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Corn + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together647 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Yolks thicken the milk into a custard, and whites folded in add lightness.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the milk as it heats and boils, giving the pudding body.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, tender mouthfeel to the custard.
- White granulated sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps the yolks and whites hold their texture.
- Boiled rice
- Forms the body of the pudding, soaking up the custard as it sets.
The step that matters
Stir until the mixture boils for 3 minutes. Cornstarch only thickens fully once it reaches a boil and is held there. Stopping early leaves a thin, starchy base, while overheating can curdle the egg yolks added later.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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